


Ticket on the Next Space Shuttle

by starandrea



Series: Dreams [2]
Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Gen, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 22:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10841088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starandrea/pseuds/starandrea
Summary: Billy is looking for spaceships and in need of transportation.  Zack offers, accidentally outing them in the process, and most of the team goes along for the ride.  It turns out they have a lot to say to each other even when they're not saving the town from evil Rangers.





	Ticket on the Next Space Shuttle

They were standing in the shadow of the steps because indirect light made it easier to read the specs on his tablet, not because they were trying to avoid notice.  Billy didn’t have to see the screen, of course, since he'd been the one to design the search parameters for space-faring vehicles.  But Camber needed a reference, and even maximum contrast could only do so much in direct sun.  

Given the lack of uninterrupted sightlines from the parking lot, Billy was surprised that Zack located them so easily.  "Hey, Billy," he called, coming straight toward them as though the approach were deliberate.  "You want a ride?"

"A ride to where?" Billy asked.  He could use a ride up into the hills, but it seemed more likely that Zack was offering with a specific destination in mind.  And the odds of any specific destination being the location Billy had pinpointed as most capable of hiding energy similar to that emitted by Zordon's equipment were low.

"You know," Zack said, which didn't narrow it down much.  Billy knew a lot of things.

"That place we go," Zack added, when Billy just looked at him.  "After school."

Where did everyone go after school?  "Home?" Billy said blankly.

"The ship," Zack said.  He sounded exasperated, which Billy thought was unfair given the vagueness of his initial query.  "You know, the secret spaceship we found at the mine and didn't tell anyone about."

"You already found one?" Camber said.  "Well, that gives your comparison values more weight."

"We didn't tell anyone," Billy repeated, frowning.  "Apparently we're using a definition of secret with which I'm unfamiliar."

"Okay, I wasn't being serious!" Zack exclaimed.  "Do all your friends believe anything you tell them?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Billy asked.  "Subterfuge and deception only impede the process of scientific discovery."

"So have you already found the second ship too?" Camber wanted to know.  "How theoretical is this exercise?"

"The model is based on existing data," Billy said, "but its efficacy is entirely unverified at this time.  I was hoping to make some firsthand observations this afternoon."

"Wait, what second ship?" Zack interrupted.  "There's another ship?"

"I don't know," Billy said.  "That's what unverified means.  Firsthand observation means I'd like to go and find out.  Is your offer of a ride contingent upon the original destination?"

"What?" Zack asked.

"Will you take him to check out the second ship," Camber repeated.  Which Billy found unnecessary, since he'd just asked that, but Zack had pulled out his phone and might not have been paying attention.

"Yeah," he said without looking up.  "Of course.  We going now?"

Billy's phone vibrated in his pocket, and a message from Zack appeared in the top right corner of his tablet.   _ Billy's looking for another spaceship, _ it said.   _ Meet us out front by the steps if you want in. _

"Why is he messaging you?" Camber asked.

"He isn't," Billy said.  "He's messaging the group that found the original spaceship, of which I happen to be a part."

"I don't mean to cramp your style," Zack said, still typing away on his phone.  "But I'm pretty sure the secret part meant we weren't supposed to tell anyone."

"I didn't tell anyone," Billy reminded him.  "You did."

"Okay, but sometimes people say true things as a joke, specifically so that other people won't believe them," Zack said.

"That doesn't make any sense to me," Billy told him.

"Yeah," Zack said.  "I'm getting that."

Trini's reply was characteristically succinct:  _ in. _

Kim's had followed so quickly that the timestamp was the same:  _ anywhere but here. _

Zack had added,  _ J, that means you get the middle seat. _

"Can I get your energy readings on the first spaceship?" Camber asked.  "And the second one, if you find it?  I'm not trying to steal your model, I promise.  I'd just like to see what you're looking at."

"Of course," Billy said.  "I'll isolate the data and send it to you tonight."

Camber looked much more cheerful after hearing this.  "Nice!  Thanks, Billy."

"Hey."  Trini called out to them from the brightly lit sidewalk, and her body language made it clear she wasn't planning to join them in the shadows.  "We going, or what?"

"We're missing people!" Zack called back.  He was typing on his phone again, but he found the time to add, "Can't you count?"

_ Crazy girl says you got five minutes before we leave without you. _

Zack’s message popped up on Billy's tablet and he felt obliged to point out, "She didn't say that."

"That's what she meant," Zack told him.

_ Did not, _ Trini’s reply appeared as he spoke.   _ I’d leave now. _

_ can 5 people even fit in your car? _ Kim wanted to know.

"The question of your car's capacity is a valid one," Billy said.  "Especially given your suggestion that Jason ride in the middle seat."

“Last man gets last choice,” Zack said.  “We’ll fit.”

"Why are we still standing around?" Kim asked, and Billy looked up in time to see her stop right next to Trini.  They were often unexpectedly in physical contact with each other, but Billy had observed that the boundaries of personal space were different for girls.  "Who's your friend, Billy?"

Billy looked from Trini to Zack, but Kim knew both of them so he guessed, "Camber?"

"Hey!" Camber said, waving at them.  "Nice to meet you!"

"Yeah," Kim said, lifting her hand and tilting it to the side.  It was like a wave, but less enthusiastic.  "You too."

Trini just looked away, which seemed reasonable.  That was how Billy would have handled the situation too.  It wasn't as though there were any reason for them to interact, and he wasn't sure why Kim had asked in the first place.  Didn't she pretend she knew everyone?

"Jason's already gone," Kim added.  "He's on his bike, so.  We'll probably catch him if we head, you know.  In the usual direction."

"Toward the mine," Billy said.

"Oh, right," Camber agreed.  "Where the first spaceship is."

"Uh-huh," Billy said.  "But that's not where the second one will be, so I don't think we'll pass Jason unless he's right up the road."

"Anyone want to call him?" Zack asked.  He and Trini were both looking at Kim, which seemed odd, but they hadn't had his phone number until today.  Maybe there was some social protocol around how long you had to have a number before you were supposed to use it.  Except they'd all been texting since lunchtime, and also, that seemed ridiculous.

"I'll call him," Billy said.  He pulled out his phone and said, "Call Jason."

A silent and unobtrusive icon in the corner of the screen showed the call trying to connect, but after several seconds the phone informed him, "Jason is not answering."

"Leave message," Billy said.  "Hi, Jason, it's Billy.  But you probably knew that.  I don't know why you're not answering, unless you forgot to turn off silent mode after class again.  You should be more careful about that; what if we had to talk to you about something?

"Which we do," he added.  "We need to talk to you, because we're going looking for another spaceship and everyone thinks you'll want to come, I guess.  You should want to come; it's very exciting.  But since we can't tell you about it, I'm leaving you this message, and you should call me back when you get it so we can tell you where we are.

"Oh, and Zack says you have to ride in the middle seat of his car," he said quickly.  "If you come with us.  I think it's because you answered last when Zack asked who wanted to go--well, you didn't answer at all, but if you’re not last next time you might get a better choice of seats.  So.  Bye."

Zack was staring at him after he told the phone to end the call.  "Was all of that completely necessary?" he asked.

"Cool phone," Kim said.  "Is it all voice recognition?"

"Most of the basic features," Billy said, because that was the question he understood.  "I had to make some modifications.  Can we go?  I need to be home in time to help with dinner."

"Yeah," Trini said.  "Because we're the ones holding us up."

"Okay, good," Billy said.  "I'll let Jason know what time we left school."

"Bye Camber," Kim said.

"Good luck hunting spaceships," Camber said cheerfully.  "Can't wait to see the data!"

"What data?" Trini asked as they all followed Zack's directions to his car.  Or his sort-of directions.  He didn't really give directions at all, just kept walking ahead of them in a curving line around the front of the school toward the parking lot.  "Are we really looking for more spaceships?"

"Billy thinks he knows where there might be a second one," Zack said over his shoulder.  "That's all I got."

"And I said Camber could have my data on the first one," Billy added.  "And the second one, assuming we find it.  I mean, it should be in the general vicinity of the location I've calculated, but that still leaves a wide swath of land that's mostly unaccounted for."

"Is that safe?" Kim wanted to know.  "I mean, I kind of thought we were keeping this a secret.  Zordon did say no one’s supposed to know who we are."

"Yeah, I thought it was a secret too!" Billy exclaimed.  “Zack told Camber, and it seemed inconsistent to lie about it afterwards.  Are we lying about it?  Because I’m not very good at that.”

"I'm gonna guess we shouldn't ask Billy to lie about anything," Zack said.  "Just as a general rule."

"You'd think," Kim said.  "But he killed Jason's tracking anklet for him."

"He told my parents I helped him with a physics experiment," Trini said.

"That’s true," Billy pointed out, when Zack and Kimberly turned to look at her and then at him.  "You were invaluable in providing a source of light so that I could complete my calculations on site."

"You held a flashlight for him," Kim said.

Trini shrugged.  "Someone had to.  I'm all about using my talents effectively."

"When was this?" Zack wanted to know.  "I didn't know you guys were bonding over science experiments."

"Oh, did we forget to text you a schedule of our every waking moment?" Trini retorted.  "Next time maybe you should ask her; she's the one who knows what the entire school is doing."

The car was on the other side of the parking lot, but Billy spotted it immediately.  That didn't keep him from asking, "Where did you park? 

“Wait, what did I do?” Kim asked at the same time.  He’d been hoping to head that off.  “He’s the one being bossy.  I just showed up.”

Zack pointed to his car, but he said, “Hey, I invited Billy.  You guys didn’t have to come.”

"You also invited them," Billy said.

"What, did you not want them to come?" Zack asked.  "I forgot you go off looking for weird shit on your own all the time."

"No, we should all go," Billy said.  "Jason would want all of us to go together."

"Jason?" Kim said.

At the same time Trini asked, "Who cares what Jason wants?"

"If the answer is based on our actions in the recent past, all of us," Billy said.  "But the point is that we all have experience with spaceships, or at least one spaceship, and the type of spaceship I'm looking for is based on the one we've already found.  I mean, not that there couldn't be others out there, but I haven't figured out how to look for them yet.  So if we find another one, we, all of us, should be there."

"Why?" Trini wanted to know.

"Because Billy literally died for knowing too much," Zack said.  "The least we can do is be right there with him."

Billy frowned.  "I don't think that's the argument you should use to convince people," he said, but Kim was nodding and Trini waved in the direction of Zack's car, which apparently meant "let's go," so he shrugged.  "On the other hand, if it works."

So they all piled into Zack's car, which held four of them with relatively little difficulty.  Zack put his backpack in the trunk, and he pushed aside blankets and food and what looked like climbing gear so that Kim and Trini could do the same.  Billy kept his backpack in the front seat with him, in the wheel well between his feet.  He didn't like to be separated from his things.  Besides, he needed them, so it made sense.

They didn't pass Jason on the road.  They all got a text, though, and Billy read it aloud for Zack.  "Doing errands downtown for my dad," he said.  "Don't leave the planet without me."

"Funny," Zack said.

Kim sounded more interested than amused when she asked, "Is that an option?"

"No one's leaving the planet," Zack said, looking at the rearview mirror and presumably trying to catch her eye.  Statements were supposed to have more impact when you looked at the person you were talking to.  In Billy's experience, it just made people ask what you were looking at.

"I'd go," Trini said.

"I'm in," Kim agreed.

"Billy, this isn't a working spaceship we're going to find," Zack said.  "Is it?  I mean, it's old like Zordon's, right?"

"I don't know how I would know that," Billy said.  He would have to separate the readings from the ship from those of the geographical features disguising it and extrapolate, but he had no frame of reference for the functional lifetime of alien equipment.  Everything on Zordon's ship seemed to work just fine.  "There's no reason to assume that this ship, if it exists, dates from the same era as Zordon's.  And we don't even know that Zordon's ship itself is permanently grounded on Earth."

"You think Zordon's ship could leave the planet?" Trini asked.

"Well it obviously could at one point," Billy said.  "Right now it's effectively trapped by the fossilized layers around it.  But so were the zords, and they broke free without much effort."

"Speak for yourself," Zack said.

"Okay," Kim said at the same time.  "That would be pretty cool.  Right?  I'm not the only one who thinks that's cool?"

"Why are you asking us about what's cool?" Trini countered.

"Okay, what did I do to you?" Kim demanded.  "Is this about Biology?  I'm not avoiding you; I'm avoiding Amanda.  I like you."

"Like I care," Trini said.

"Well, I care," Kim told her.  "You're my friend.  I don't know what I did to make you mad at me, but I've made enough enemies this year and I really don't want to add you guys to the list.  So tell me what I can do."

"Be my lab partner," Trini said.

"Fine by me," Kim said.  "What else?"

"Come over to my house to study sometime," Trini said.  "My parents have this weird idea that I don't have any friends."

"Only if you come over to mine too," Kim said.  "My parents are convinced I'm a social outcast now."

"Having me over isn't going to convince them otherwise," Trini told her.

"Yeah it is," Kim said.  "But that's not why I asked."

"I'm not going to be your bi girlfriend," Trini said.

Billy frowned, because he didn't remember hearing that suggestion at all.  But sometimes people understood things from conversations that he didn't notice.  It wasn't directed at him anyway, so he didn't ask.

"Yeah," Kim said, like it was a perfectly logical answer.  "That's good.  Me and Jason agreed we’re not going to date team members."

"Wait," Zack said.  "You and Jason agreed not to date any of us?"

"That's what I said," Kim agreed.

"Why would you need to date any of us?" Billy asked, because if Zack was going to get involved then he should be allowed to participate too.  "We already see each other every day."

"Did you talk about this, like, hypothetically?" Zack wanted to know.  "Or did it come up in some sort of, uh, practical situation?"

"That's really none of your business," Kim said.  "But we agreed we weren't going to date each other first."

"Yeah, okay, that part's all you," Zack agreed.  "But the part after that, where you also agreed you're not going to date any of us?  That's at least a little bit our business."

"Maybe twenty-five percent our business," Billy offered.  "Statistically, assuming we all have an equal chance of being someone you might want to date.  Which seems unlikely, socially speaking."

"That's true," Kim said.  "I'd much rather go out with you than Zack."

"Hey!" Zack protested.

"Oh, uh, I'm not really very good at romantic relationships," Billy said quickly.  "I mean, I think it's probably good that you decided not to date any of us, because dating is something I try to stay away from.  Except platonically.  I sometimes attend events as someone's date, but only because we're friends and they want an escort.  I mean, activity partner.  Not like a sexual escort or anything."

"Relax, Billy," Kim said.  "I don't date anyone who doesn't want to date me, okay?  That rules out you and Trini, and we've already covered Zack.  And me and Jason talked.

"Like I said," she added, leaning back in her seat.  "Not dating anyone on the team."

"Okay, good," Billy said, relieved.  That was a metaphorical minefield he didn't want to navigate.

"No, not good," Zack said.  "How have we covered Zack?"

"You saying you'd be as likely to date me as you would to date Billy?" Trini asked.

"Zero percent?" Kim said.  "Sure."

"If we were interested," Trini said.  "Which we're not."

"No," Kim said.  "I'm not bi.  I like girls."

So she'd be more likely to date Trini, Billy thought.  Well, that was a relief.  He really didn't need romantic complications in his life, acknowledged or otherwise.  Things were already challenging enough.

"You like girls?" Zack repeated.  "You mean, to date?"

"That was the context of the conversation," Billy reminded him.

"But you dated Ty Flemming for like, a year!" Zack said.

"No, I was seen with Ty Flemming for a year," Kim said.  "I was dating Amanda."

"Oh," Billy said.  "That's why you don't want to be in class with her."

"You were not dating Amanda," Zack said.  Which didn't make any sense, since Kim must know better than he did.  Maybe he was just expressing his surprise.

"Who do you think she took that picture for?" Kim countered.

"Then why were you with Ty?" Zack wanted to know.

"Because cheerleaders don't go to homecoming together," Trini said.

"Yeah," Kim said.  "Until Ty said he was going with her instead, which turned out to be a total lie, but by then it was too late."

"Sucks," Trini said.

"Well, boys," Kim said.  

"Tell me about it," Trini agreed.

Billy assumed now was not the moment to object, but he saw Zack glance at him out of the corner of his eye.  He shrugged, and Zack actually smiled back.  Maybe that was the right response, then.

"I wish I could blame him," Kim added, "but I'm the one who fell for it."

"Doesn't make him blameless," Trini said.  "Football players are jerks."

"Up until recently, I'm pretty sure you said the same thing about cheerleaders," Kim replied.

"I still say the same thing about cheerleaders," Trini countered.  "You're not one anymore.  So."

"Okay," Zack said.  "So before we decide that everyone who isn’t us is terrible, Billy, you got any idea where we're going?  Like how much farther?"

"Everyone who isn’t us is terrible," Kim whispered, and there was a little huff from Trini that might have been her agreeing.

"Yes, we're going to the conservation area on the other side of the old playing fields," Billy said.  "And thank you for the ride.  It seems like it's been a good bonding experience for us."

"Sure, man," Zack said.  "Bonding.  That mean you want to trade study dates too?"

Billy waited, but no further explanation was forthcoming and the meaning of the suggestion seemed unclear.  Popular opinion seemed to be against them dating each other, and he couldn't think of anything Zack could help him study for.  "In what sense do you mean to trade study dates?"

"Go over to each other's houses," Zack elaborated.  "Reassure our moms that we have actual friends."

"Oh, I have a lot of friends right now," Billy said.  "I don't think my mom needs any reassuring."

"Well, mine does," Zack said.  "She's mostly housebound.  She could use some new faces, you know?"

"I'll come meet your mom, Free Ride," Trini said from the backseat.

Zack glanced up at the rearview mirror with a smile.  "Thanks, Crazy Girl.  Means a lot."

"Can I come too?" Kim asked.  "I mean, if you're okay with that.  I'd like to meet your mom."

"Yeah, sure," Zack said.  "The more the merrier."

"Billy," Kim added.  "You should come with us."

"All right," Billy said.

"He said he doesn't want to," Zack said.  "Leave him alone."

"I didn't say I don't want to meet your mom," Billy said.  "Why do you think I said that?"

"You said your mom doesn't need to know you have any more friends," Zack said.  "Seemed pretty clear to me."

"How does me believing my mom isn’t worried about my social life relate to me wanting to meet your mom?" Billy asked.

"It's because Zack suggested trading," Kim said.  "Like me and Trini.  I think he meant, he'll meet your mom if you meet his.  So when you said he didn't need to meet your mom, he assumed that meant you don't want to meet his."

"Oh," Billy said.  "That's not what I meant.  I'd like to meet your mom.  And I'd like for you to meet my mom.  All of you; I'm sure she'd enjoy that.  Maybe we should hang out somewhere other than the mine or the ship?  We could all meet at someone's house, once a week or something, and we could move from one house to another.  I mean, only one house at a time, or it would get confusing, but a different house each week.  Do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Zack said.  "And I'm good with that, but I don't think there's room for all of us at my place."

"We could meet outside," Trini said.  "On a nice day."

"Yeah," Zack repeated.  "Okay, yeah.  That'll work."

"Should we start at your house?" Kim asked.  "We could meet up after detention.  You have detention, right?"

"For skipping, yeah," Trini said.  "If only they knew."

"No kidding," Kim said.  "I don't see why we have to keep every part of this a secret.  We should at least be able to say we were downtown helping, right?"

"Well, the problem is correlative fallacies," Billy said.  "We all missed school before anyone else knew anything was wrong.  So if it's because we were helping, which isn't entirely inaccurate except for the part where I was dead and so not much help at all, really, then we must have had knowledge no one else had.  Either because we're heroes, or because we're villains."

"Oh, yeah," Zack said when he paused.  "The old hero or villain question."

"Right, exactly," Billy said.  "We knew something was going to happen because we were trying to save the town, but at the end of the day it's difficult to prove we weren't doing exactly the opposite.  And of course if we weren't there because we knew something was going to happen then we were truant, which is what we got detention for in the first place.  Well, your first.  My second.  And I'm pretty sure Jason's stacking up time for his fourth offense, now."

"I can handle detention," Trini said.  "But I don't have a car.  It's gonna be my dad picking me up.  If I'm lucky."

"Or I could pick you up," Kim said.  "We could take my car back to your house and pretend to study or something."

"I have younger brothers," Trini said.  "They'll be in the way."

"Look, if you don't want to do it, just say so," Kim said.  "It's no big deal."

"If I didn't want to do it I would say so," Trini said.

"Okay then," Kim said.  "I'll be at your house tomorrow morning."

"You don't even know where I live," Trini said.

"Yeah, there's actually a way around that," Kim said.  "It's called, you tell me."

"Or you could google map her bus route," Billy said.  "Working backward from how long she said her bus ride was, and triangulating based on the time that elapsed between her sending the text about Rita yesterday and her arriving at the field.  Assuming uninterrupted traffic patterns, which is reasonable based on the time of day.  Or night.

"You'll probably want to park at the other end of the field," he added, as Zack put on his blinker for the slightly overgrown pulloff on the near side.

"Entrance to the conservation lands is on this side," Zack said, slowing down on the approach.

"Yes," Billy said.  "But if I were trying to hide a spaceship, I'd put it down far away from places where people seem likely to gather."

"Then how come we can drive right up to it?" Zack asked.  He kept going anyway.

"Well, we haven't yet," Billy said.  "But road access might be as much of a problem for aliens as it is for us.  If they left their spaceship out here, they must have needed another way to get around.  Cars would be an efficient and inconspicuous option."

Kim made a sound that might have been a sigh, but when Billy looked back at her she was smiling.  "I'm trying to picture Alpha driving around town," she said.

"You're all terrible drivers," Zack offered.  "Ay yi yi."

"He's probably a great driver," Trini said.

"Or he's terrible but he doesn't care," Zack said.  "Can't you just see him, like, why are all these other cars using the road?  I'm driving on it.  Get out of the way."

"He'd put the windows down and use his creepy arm tentacles to move them around," Kim said.

"And then he'd run into them anyway," Zack added.  "Over here okay?"

"What, to park, yes," Billy said, staring at the GPS locator on his phone.  He looked up at the fields, then back at his phone.  "GPS isn't recognizing our position precisely.  I'll need to make some manual corrections."

"You're the one in a hurry," Trini said.

"This is weird, though, right?" Kim asked.  "I mean, I feel like we should be training."

"Speak for yourself," Zack said, putting the car in park and turning off the engine.  "I'm glad to have an afternoon that isn't about being pounded into a cave wall or a broken street.  This is the life."

"Got it," Billy said.  He pushed open the door and got out, settling his backpack on his shoulders before he started in the direction of the forest behind the field.  "It might not be far; given the thicker than expected tree cover there will only be so many places to fit a ship."

"Why would it be on the surface?" Trini called from behind him.  "Zordon's isn't."

"I'm registering energy congruent with what's Zordon's ship is emitting now," Billy said.  "Not before it--it came back online.  Ended its dormancy?  Powered up?  I don't know; the point is, I think we're looking for an active ship, not one that's been buried for millions of years."

"Unless it's active for the same reason Zordon's is," Zack said.  "Right?  Maybe it was dormant, and it only just powered up."

"That's possible," Billy agreed.  "I expect it to be smaller than Zordon's, maybe too small to sustain a crew independent of a larger vessel.  It could even be a satellite ship related to Zordon's, which would explain the similar and temporally proximal energy readings."

"Temporally proximal?" Kim asked.  "What does that mean?"

"Close together in time," Billy said, lifting up his phone and recalibrating the compass.  Still off.  Not by much.  The discrepancy almost looked deliberate, but he had no hypothesis to explain it.

"Maybe they're both online now because they're related somehow," Trini said.

"Yes, exactly," Billy agreed.  "On the other hand, it could be some sort of scout vessel responding to the sudden change in Zordon's ship, or the probably very visible fight with Rita.  Galactically speaking, I mean, it should have been visible.  That was a lot of power she threw around; I'm still not sure if it came from her green power coin, making it part of her Ranger abilities the way we can jump over and run up things, or if there's something intrinsically different about her."

"So maybe aliens come and go from the planet all the time and we just don't notice," Kim said.  "Right?  There could be dozen of ships out there that we just don't see."

"We'll see them soon," Billy said.  "Or at least, we'll be able to.  This is just a prototype search.  I'll make improvements as I gather more data."

“Is this our new thing?” Trini wanted to know.  “First we fight Rita, then we look for aliens?”

“More aliens?” Kim added.  “I mean, we already found two.  Or three.  Depending on whether Alpha counts or not.”

“Alpha definitely counts,” Zack said.

“He’s a robot,” Trini said.

“Zordon’s a wall,” Zack countered.  “If he counts, Alpha counts.”

“I’m okay with it,” Kim said.  “Looking for aliens.”

“Technically we’re looking for spaceships,” Billy said.  He stopped and turned at a right angle to their path toward the treeline.  Then a few more degrees for good measure.  He put out his hand and walked forward more slowly.

“What are you doing?” Trini wanted to know.  “Are you about to run into something?”

“I think it’s right here,” Billy said.  “Not in the trees at all.  I think it’s parked on the edge of the field.”

“I don’t see anything,” Zack said.

Something ran into Billy’s head and he put his hand up automatically.  “Hey!”  His fingers cracked something hard even as he jerked back.  “Ow!”

“What?”  Kim and Trini were immediately on the defensive, and he appreciated their ability to turn anything into a potential fight.  They’d clearly honed their instincts over the last couple of weeks.  Billy still hesitated, waiting for answers before putting up his fists, which wasn’t as helpful in dangerous situations.

“I think--”  He held up his hand again, carefully this time, and laid it on something his eyes said wasn’t there.  His fingers pressed against something convincingly solid on the edge of an empty field.  “It’s an invisible spaceship.”


End file.
